13 June 14
Ready or Not?
Yesterday, in Philadelphia, PA, two elderly men emerged from local gunshop/indoor range and were robbed, at gunpoint, in the parking lot as they approached their vehicle.
Two suspects, one male and one female, confronted the two victims and ultimately stole several guns from them. For their cooperation (being âgood victimsâ) one of the elderly men was shot and is in critical condition at a local hospital.
Interesting that the pair of robbers didnât actually go into the gunshop, probably because people in there are armed! However, they obviously calculated that these two gentlemen (1) probably had guns, but (2) their guns were probably still in the boxes they came in and were thus unloaded, and (3) the victims werenât otherwise armed, and (4) being robbed in the parking lot was the last thing in the world they were thinking about!
They were correct on all four assumptions!
I have personally been in this particular gunshop and conducted Courses there!
Lessons:
>Guns are items highly prized by thieves and robbers, and people walking out of gun retailers are likely to have some in their possession!
>Nicely âcooperatingâ with robbery suspects carries no guarantee that you will not be shot, stabbed, kidnaped, or otherwise harmed by them. âGive them what they want,â advice commonly offered by so-called âexpertsâ on this subject, often represents a poor strategy, as we see here.
>âArmedâ is not something we âdo.â It is something we are! âGoing armedâ is a permanent lifestyle, and youâre either one of us, or youâre not.
>When your life is directly threatened, you have to decide how long youâre going to allow a pitiless criminal to continue to jeopardized your life and health. Itâs your call, but when youâve never thought about âmaking the wager,â when the test comes, youâll either (1) forget, or (2) be too scared to try, and youâll subsequently be casually murdered and become another dreary âcrime statisticâ for that particular day, âpage eight, column fiveâ
>For those of us who do go armed, alertness goes with the territory! The more warning you give yourself, the better position youâll be in when you are compelled to âgo to guns.â You have to keep your head up and be prepared to take evasive/protective action early, even when youâre the only one who sees the danger.
>As a civilization, weâre (by choice) committing suicide, and events like the foregoing are just symptoms. Itâs going to be âthe Quick and the Dead.â It is time for each of us to decide which group we want to be in! Itâs your call, but, when a lethal threat suddenly confronts you, it will be too late to change your mind, as we see!
âThere’s no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you’ll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on-board who knows how to fly an airplane?â
Stewardess Elaine Dickinson (played by Julie Hagerty), in the 1980 feature film, âAirplaneâ
/John